The forecast: China's ecommerce channel ad spending will reach $50.31 billion in 2021, which is nearly double that of the US. This represents 45.7% of China's digital ad market, compared with the US, where ecommerce channel ad spending's share of total digital is 13.4%.

As retail ecommerce sales in China are expected to reach $2.564 trillion in 2021 and continue to grow by double digits through 2023, advertisers will increasingly shift their attention to the vast potential of that market.

Dive deeper:

• A major reason for this growth is because Alibaba, which single-handedly takes up 67.4% of China's ecommerce ad spending, has always emphasized ad revenue growth in its business model. It is estimated that Alibaba's retail customer management revenues (where ad revenues reside) take up a much bigger share than commissions revenues.
• Alibaba, JD.com, and Meituan will account for 83.7% of China's ecommerce ad spending, while much of the remaining share belongs to other ecommerce companies such as Pinduoduo and Suning.